A Very Bang Christmas
by freak of nature6
Summary: Need some happy Bang? Then hit the slopes with them for a Bang skiing adventure. Will Cristina be able to deal with Burke so far from the hospital? This is their Christmas holiday, Bang style.
1. Chapter 1

A/N I had fun imagining Bang going skiing, and decided Christmas was a perfect time for it to happen. They need a break, and we need some happy Bang in the midst of all the angst on the show at the moment.

**A Bang Christmas Holiday**

Cristina raised her eyebrows as George hobbled into the locker room that morning, his hand clutching his lower back. Meredith and Izzie were doing a terrible job at suppressing their laughter.

"What the hell happened, Bambi?" Cristina asked, securing her hair in its clip.

"I got tree-d," he mumbled, before slamming the door of the men's bathroom. Cristina turned her questioning gaze to Meredith.

"Izzie was decorating, as usual."

"It's Christmas!" Izzie interjected.

"So of course, our living room looks like Santa threw up in there, when she decided to recruit George to carry the tree in. There was a complication."

"A complication?"

"The branches got caught in the banister, and the tree sort of collapsed. On top of George," Izzie explained.

"And he was moaning about it all night! As if the holidays aren't bad enough without us losing more sleep," Meredith added disdainfully, shoving her possessions into her locker.

Cristina smiled wryly. "Your holiday spirit is destructive, Izzie."

"Hey, you tried last year to get me down, and it didn't work! You were being supportive, remember, 'cause Alex cheated on me? My fiancée died this year, you have to be extra supportive. I know it was months ago, but I'm not above bringing it up if it means I get to decorate." She smirked at the two girls, then went to get changed.

"I hate you," George announced, as he gingerly sat down next to Cristina.

"Why? I didn't attack you. That was the big scary pine tree."

"Shut up. I hate you because after today, you get the whole of the next week off. Interns _never _get Christmas holidays."

"Except when they're giving it up for attendings, that can help with the whole time off thing," Alex put in with his usual amount of tact.

"Shut up, evil spawn," Izzie said, but with a smile. Friendships were different that year.

Bailey banged in the door. "Get up! Rounds! It's getting busy, since Christmas is two days away. And you _will _be prompt today, because I _am _getting off at six, because it's my son's first Christmas and I'm not missing a thing. We're going down to the pit. Move!"

"So how are you feeling about tomorrow? Impending doom?" Meredith asked Cristina as they followed the others at their usual explosive pace.

Cristina groaned. "I _still _can't believe I miss out on Christmas surgeries. But Burke was so insistent that we go on a holiday, because we didn't over summer."

"Well, of course, he had to focus on his physical therapy, after he outed himself."

Cristina smirked. Meredith still referred to Burke confessing his tremors to the chief as him 'outing' himself.

"Yeah, whatever. He really pressed this, and I had to suggest the skiing thing when he started asking which of our families we should spend Christmas with. I will _not _spend the holidays in Beverly Hills, and his mother still hates me. His father likes me, but in a weird way. I wouldn't put it below him to buy me lingerie, it's his twisted idea of a joke."

"But Preston knows how to ski, of course?" Meredith asked wryly. It had become a recent game between the two of them – trying to find an activity that Preston Burke _wasn't _accomplished at.

"But of course! We're actually staying at a cabin in Utah that he used to go skiing at as a boy. Luckily my stepfather flew us to Aspen enough Christmases that I may even be worthy to ski in the company of the great Preston Burke. But he's all _excited _about it. Seriously."

Meredith smirked. It was good to see some things were constant, but she knew how to read beneath her friend's bitching better than last year.

At some subterranean Cristina level, she was also excited.

Preston Burke stood erect in front of the board, arms crossed, his eyes surveying his surgeries for the day behind his glasses.

"So, you're ending the year with a triple bypass? Then leaving us commoners behind?" came Derek Shepherd's familiar drawl beside him. He'd come to look over his own surgeries.

"Don't be so hard on everyone, Derek. Not all hospital staff should be referred to as commoners. Just you, and a handful of others."

Derek grinned. The playground rivalry between them would never cease. But the foundation of a friendship formed between them that year. This Christmas, he was allowed to call his colleague by his first name. That was progress.

"You flatter me, Preston. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a grand new year on the slopes, and there's not a bone in my body that hopes you break something up there."

"I've had enough injuries this year, I think," Burke replied, though lighthearted. "And I will have a wonderful time, it's the first holiday I've had in five years, not to mention my first time away with Cristina."

"Ah, romance at Seattle Grace. It's a beautiful thing."

Burke took a step back to lean against the stairs. "And what about you? How's your Christmas looking this year?"

Derek ran a hand through his hair. "Well, last year at Christmas I told my wife I was in love with another woman, and now I'm with said other woman, and it's going relatively smoothly – for us, anyway. So I'd say if we can make it through the holiday without incident, its looking up."

"And what about the fact that your ex-wife has a new man? That won't put a dampener on things?" Burke asked out of concern for his friend. He wasn't trying to bait him at all.

Well, perhaps a little.

Addison was seeing an oncologist with his own private practice across town. Derek gave a wry smile. "No, I'm glad Addison's moved on, with someone other than Mark. Anyway, I have a craniotomy to get to. If I don't see you, have fun in Utah."

Burke nodded. "I will."

Burke stood patiently by the door, trying not to be alarmed by the crashes coming from the bathroom. "Cristina," he called. "The cab will be here to take us to the airport any moment."

"Ok!" yelled. "I'm just packing my toiletries!"

He doubted she was so much packing as shattering their bathroom mirror, but he let it slide. He'd learnt to do that increasingly over the last year. Just let the little things go. It made what actually mattered much more enjoyable.

A few minutes later she emerged from their bedroom, her small frame struggling under the weight of her large bags. "Good god, how much luggage are you bringing?"

She sighed impatiently. "You've _seen _how much I own," she began, trying to catch her breath as she hoisted another bag over her shoulder. "And I _am _the woman in this relationship, so I get to pack as much as I want."

He grinned at her theatrics. "Well, alright then." He shouldered his own bag with ease, and relieved her of one of her burdens. She mumbled a thank you, and stumbled out to the elevator.

Burke was _annoyingly _serene on the plane, Cristina noted a few hours later. No matter how exhausted she was from the day, she still suffered from an affliction she'd had all her life: a complete and utter inability to sleep on planes. She knew the flight was only a few hours, but she couldn't relax. It seemed to have the opposite affect of waking her up. She restlessly flipped through the in-flight magazine, flicked channels aimlessly on the monitor in front of her, and stared out into the black nothingness that was her view from the window.

Burke placed his earphones in his ears, folded his hands in his lap, and closed his eyes. That was it. He was completely immobile for an hour, so much so that she actually leaned over to check that he was breathing at one point. Rolling her eyes disdainfully when she realized he was sleeping, she went back to staring out the window. She continued to shoot him dirty looks, because she really had nothing else to do.

He caught one of these as he woke up. He blinked a couple of times, before asking, "yes?"

"Must you?"

"Must I what?"

"Sleep," she replied sarcastically.

He just grinned, accustomed to her mood swings by now. He reached over and patted her hand, before putting his glasses on and pulling out his book.

When they finally arrived in Utah, Burke went to hire a car, and Cristina pulled out her cell.

"Mere?" she asked as her friend picked up.

"Cristina? Aren't you supposed to be building a snowman by now?"

"No, we're at the airport, and he's already driving me crazy."

"What's he done now?"

"Nothing. He's all relaxed, and in holiday mode. He's calm. It's driving me crazy."

She sensed rather than saw Meredith smirk. "It's annoying you because you don't even know _how _to relax."

"I do too," she replied moodily, before hearing a male voice in the background. She wrinkled her nose. "You're not alone, are you?"

"Not exactly."

"Do me a favour. _Never _talk to me again while you're doing McDreamy. Later."

"Bye."

By the time they made it to the cabin, Cristina fell asleep, exhausted.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N Thanks for the reviews guys! The fluff continues…

By the time they made it to the cabin, Cristina fell asleep, exhausted. She woke up the next morning in her usual position, intertwined with Burke. "Good morning," he said, his voice deeper as it always was in the mornings.

"Mmm," she responded by way of reply, and buried herself under the covers. Burke chuckled. "Well, you don't have to get up until whenever you want today." He himself still rose, and Cristina only dozed. Her body was automatically timed to wake up with the sun. When she was finally stretching in an attempt to rouse her body, Burke came in with a mug in one hand, and a plate of toast in the other. She wordlessly took the coffee from him, and shoved a slice of toast in her mouth, before she was awake enough to mumble, "morning."

After they went to hire their skis, they changed into their ski suits, and walked over to a map to study the trails. Behind her glasses, Cristina could perve on Burke in his all-black ski suit until her heart was content.

"It's been a while since I've done this. Do you want to do a beginner, and intermediate or an advanced trail?"

Cristina smirked. She knew he was only trying to be nice, in case she couldn't keep up with him. "You won't be able to show off fully unless we're on an advanced trail, and who am I to stand in your way?"

He grinned, and pulled his sunglasses over his eyes. "Fine, your call. Let's go."

As they were on the chairlift, he glanced down at their surroundings. "It's beautiful," he began, taking in the rolling mountains blanketed in snow, tasting the chill on the air. "How would you describe it?"

She raised her eyebrows, "excuse me?"

"You're the one that majored in literature at college. Say something poetic to describe the scene."

She rolled her eyes. Non-hospital Burke was mildly disturbing her. "I majored in _French _Literature. Fine. Everything's very…white."

"That wasn't very poetic."

"_You _say something poetic."

He thought for a moment, then leant across to softly brush his lips against hers. He lingered for a moment, before pulled back. "I went for cliché rather than poetic."

Cristina pressed her lips together, trying not to smile. "That'll do."

At lunch, Burke asked Cristina, "how many times have you been skiing before?"

She shrugged as she sipped on her diet coke. "I don't know, half a dozen maybe?"

"You're good." He paused, watching her face closely. Deciding he'd need to press a little more, he asked, "can you remember the last time you went skiing?"

She furrowed her brow for a moment. "It was the usual trip to Aspen Saul took us on. It was when I was at college, probably Christmas of my sophomore year. He decided he wanted to unite the family for Christmas, so even though my stepsister Claudia and I were at college, he paid for us all to go." She smirked, lost in memory. "I don't remember much else except the guy Claudia decided to bring with her. She'd always had a new one basically every weekend when we were in high school, but Daddy's little girl, only 22 at the time, brought a guy – Trey, I think his name was – and announced they were getting married."

"And this was a problem?"

"Are you kidding? You may have only met them once, but you saw how controlling Saul is of his daughter, even now. Saul wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible, and my mother suggested that locking him outside the cabin in the freezing temperatures all night may be an effective deterrent."

"Humane."

"Yeah, well, that was my mother. They didn't break up those holidays, but eventually Trey impregnated another girl, so that was the end of that."

Burke shared a smile with her, and continued watching her after she resumed eating. Strange how someone could still be so intriguing, after so many months. She still captivated him, and he hardly dared to breathe on the rare moments she did open up to him, determined to savour every moment.

So after a couple of days away, Cristina actually began to relax, and enjoy the holiday. They had a perfectly calm Christmas, and were beginning to manage sleeping past six in the morning. She was actually enjoying skiing with him, and the man Burke was outside the hospital. This was the longest they'd been away from the hospital, and actually being outside of Seattle made a difference. He had a truly terrible (who was she kidding, it was downright geeky) sense of humour that emerged when he was relaxed, and she was having fun baiting him about it.

Of course, the most fun were the night time activities – the hot tub, and the ways they found to keep each other warm at night.

The day after Christmas, she gave Meredith a call at lunchtime whilst Burke was in the bathroom. "How was your Christmas? Were you the grinch again this year?"

"No, actually, it was fun. I went to see my mother, and then Derek came over, and we hung with George and Izzie most of the day. Even Alex came around for a bit, it didn't suck. Derek got me a day at a health spa for Christmas. He says next time I feel the need to get a hangover, to go to the health spa instead."

"Ten points for McDreamy."

"Yeah, my boyfriend rocks. What'd Burke get you?"

"This is so not a competition. But I win anyway. This holiday is my present. But I also got some diamond earrings-"

"Not too shabby."

"- and a game of 'travel scrabble' so we can play the game that's exclusively ours anywhere."

"Oh, bad images in my head. Make them stop!"

Cristina smirked. "We were right, you know. He's a brilliant skier. And he wiped me off the table at pool in the games room. Luckily last night, I finally found a game that I'm better at than him."

"What?"

"Strip poker."

"OK, overshare, and I never though I'd say that about you."

"Burke's coming back, I gotta go."

"Please do. Have fun the rest of your trip, you filthy whore."

"You too."

"Who was that?" Burke asked, dropping down to sit opposite her.

"Meredith."

"Oh, that reminds me, my mother called last night. She said to say hello."

Cristina eyed Burke. "Was that a hello as in 'I hope you break up with that bitch before new year,'?"

"No, I think it was a 'it's Christmas, I want to be civil and be friendly towards the woman my son loves,' sort of hello."

"Sure," Cristina replied disbelievingly.

He reached across the table to take her hand. "It was. But you have to admit, that was quite a first impression." A grin spread across his face. "It'll be a good story for the kids."

She stiffened slightly. He said things like that, on occasion. He still wasn't sure whether they just slipped, or he was trying to gage her reaction. But they didn't terrify her like they used to.

"It will. Are you ready to go?" Pointedly ignoring the knowing smile he gave her, she crossed to the door, knowing he'd be following her.


End file.
